DeweyQ

I tuned in to this show for the first time after reading several negative comments here on IMDb. And to be honest, I saw some of the flaws that people had pointed out: action was not cool enough (read "big budget enough") while the plot of the wives back home was better but not gripping enough to tune in again.

I see a trend in television: use clichéd characters to save narrative time and flesh them out as the series progresses. Provide nuances and wrinkles that add interest after you have captured an audience based on lowest common denominator viewers. I personally see this as a dangerous trend, but still, I can see why it is done. Perhaps the early episodes suffered from this "shorthand" technique, notwithstanding the excellent pedigree provided by David Mamet and Dennis Haysbert.

Nevertheless, I have watched a couple of new episodes lately and I think it is truly engaging television. I am hooked. So now that I have formed this addiction, I hope the network doesn't yank it away and send me into withdrawal. Shows like this need time not only to garner a respectable audience, but also to settle into a rhythm and allow quality to take root.

If you like toilet humor, you'll enjoy this movie. If you like plot and dialog and acting, you won't like this movie at all. I gave it a chance and actually laughed in a few places because the exaggeration and over-the-top political incorrectness appealed to me.

Tim Curry and James Woods do a pretty good job in their scenes. But their performances indicate that the director was looking for clichés and slightly stilted delivery as part of the humor. Having said that, this movie may offer one of Tori Spelling's best career performances.

These kinds of movies seem to be a hit with teenagers and college kids, and I always try to rekindle my youth by watching them. I admit I laughed, but then I wondered why I had. Still, I give the Wayans brothers credit for getting a laugh out of me in the first place.

Critics of this show say there is a fundamental flaw with the concept of E-Ring: the main characters, including the protagonist played by Benjamin Bratt, are not really heroes.

The line of thinking says that characters have to operate completely autonomously to be considered heroic. The comments I've seen point out that Bratt and his colleagues (including boss Dennis Hopper) direct others to do the work but need to get approval from above for that work to be carried out. In other words, they don't DO anything themselves.

I watched the episodes I've seen with a jaundiced eye, the critics' words in mind. But Bratt comes off as, while slightly arrogant and naive, a true crusader who is learning to work the system to get very heroic things done. Along the way he designs some pretty creative military missions.

Jerry Bruckheimer may be stretching himself a little thin, but this one is pretty darn good. I would give it 7 out of 10. For one thing, the acting and writing (discounting a few egregious clichés) is better than CSI: Miami.